Team Razer
Team Razer was a team of roboteers that entered the world-famous Razer in Series 2 through 6 and both Extremes of Robot Wars. Despite performing poorly in its first three main series appearances, Razer excelled in the side events, and racked up numerous trophies, as well as three Best Design Awards. In Series 5, Razer finally hit its stride and won the domestic title. It followed that up with another strong performance in Series 6, finishing as runner-up. Ian Lewis also entered Razzler in the Antweight competition for Extreme 1. The team also entered several seasons of Battlebots. They entered the untelevised 1999 event and the pay-per-view 2000 event with Razer, winning the Gigabot/Heavyweight Rumble in the latter. They also entered Season 5.0 with Warhead, a silver scorpion-like design with a petrol-driven anglable spinning dome for a weapon, hydraulic arms for self-righting, and a movable scorpion tail at the back. This seperate robot had a good degree of success, defeating five opponents including the favoured Nightmare and The Matador, before ultimately losing out on a judge's decision to Overkill (no connection to the Series 3/4 Competitor of the same name). Team Razer holds the rare honour of having two different robots mentioned in the Combat Robot Hall of Fame. Currently, the only other UK team with this achievement is Team Hurtz. The Team Ian Lewis and Simon Scott were industrial designers who had gone to school together. After seeing the first series of Robot Wars, they were inspired to make their own robot. They experimented with several different types of weapons before ultimately deciding on the hydraulic crusher. Thus, Razer was born. Interestingly, across the series, Scott and Lewis shared captain roles. In Series 3, the team was joined by Ian's fiancee's brother, Vincent Blood. Blood was primarily responsible for constructing and maintaining the team's website, but he helped out on the robot as well. Contrary to popular belief, Widow's Revenge was not built by Team Razer. Jonathan Pearce incorrectly stated that the "Robot Widows" were the wives of Team Razer, and that they had helped build the machine. In truth, the girls were unrelated to the Razer team, save Vincent Blood's girlfriend Emily (who had only joined as a last-minute replacement), and their anti-male statements were directed towards all married roboteers, not just Ian, Simon, and Vincent. Ian's Temper Ian Lewis was generally a kind and sporting person, willing to help out other roboteers, have a little fun on camera, and attend charity events. However, there were two notable incidents on Robot Wars where Ian's temper got the better of him, and though he recovered and apologised afterwards each time, many were unimpressed by his tirades. The first incident occurred in Series 4, in the heat final battle against Pussycat. Razer had got locked into forward drive, and though its wheels were still turning, it could not move. However, the Pussycat team did not realize Razer was immobile, and continued to attack it, inflicting massive damage to its rear section. Up in the booth, Ian Lewis turned his back on the fight, and refused to watch Pussycat ravage his robot. After the fight, he immediately hurried down to the pits to inspect the damage on Razer, not even bothering to show up for the post-fight interview. Down in the pits, he showed off all the gruesome damage that Razer had taken, and admonished the Gribbles for their lack of restraint. During Extreme 1, Ian challenged the Pussycat team to a grudge match, reiterating what he'd said in Series 4 about the unnecessary damage they'd caused. In reality, Ian was at peace with the incident, and the grudge was acted out for entertainment purposes, however, the damage to his reputation was done, and many began calling his sportsmanship into question. In Extreme 2, Razer fought Tornado (armed with its anti-crusher web) in the semi-final of the European Championship. During the match, Razer picked up Tornado, and began smoking; its motors had burned out. The two robots remained hooked together for well over the 30-second holding limit, before cease was called. The judges ruled in favour of Razer, however Simon and Vincent believed the decision to be unfair, as Razer was clearly immobile, and Tornado should have been freed by the Refbot. Ian refused to go along with the decision, and when his teammates tried to explain that they were 2-1 in favour of conceding the match, Ian told Vincent that his vote didn't count, as he didn't help build the machine. Ian eventually relented and apologized for his out-of-line remark, but he still refused to be on camera when the team handed over the victory to Tornado. Over the months prior, Vincent had been indecisive about remaining on the Razer team, and Ian's behaviour towards this matter was the last straw. He announced his resignation soon afterwards. Robogeddon In 2002, Ian Lewis and Simon Scott, what remained of Team Razer, came together with Andrew Cotterell of Team Ming, where they formed a robot building/hiring company called Robogeddon. The company manufactured a fleet of robot kits (known by them as RCVs). When fully constructed, each of these RCVs are 80kg box-wedge shaped with four-wheel drive and a full body bumper to absorb shocks, it is also armed with a flipping arm. These robot kits cost 1825 GBP, but the company can also organise events for people, setting up a temporary arena with shelter and bringing some pre-built Robogeddon units for people to control. But whilst Cotterell chose to take two pre-built units, modify them and enter them for the seventh series of Robot Wars (Ming Dienasty and Zorro) to publicise the company, Ian and Simon chose not to, choosing also not to compete in Robot Wars again. This company still goes on today, with these Cotterell, Lewis and Scott still in charge. Robots Wins/Losses *Wins: 41 *Losses: 7 Series Record *Series 1: Did not enter *Series 2: Heat, Arena Semi-Final with Razer *Series 3: Heat, Round 2 with Razer *Series 4: Heat Final with Razer *Series 5: Grand Champion with Razer *Series 6: Runner-up with Razer *Series 7: Did not enter Honours Category:Team Pages